The Welfare State As Piggy Bank

Information, Risk, Uncertainty, and the Role of the State

Nicholas Barr

Wide-ranging: covers the whole welfare state in an integrated framework rooted in modern economic theory

Relevant and internationally applicable analysis

The Welfare State As Piggy Bank

Information, Risk, Uncertainty, and the Role of the State

Nicholas Barr

Description

Barr contends that the welfare state exists for reasons besides poverty relief, reasons arising out of pervasive problems of imperfect information, risk and uncertainty. As a result, he argues, the welfare state is here to stay, since 21st century developments don't address these additional reasons.

The Welfare State As Piggy Bank

Information, Risk, Uncertainty, and the Role of the State

Nicholas Barr

Table of Contents

1. IntroductionPart 1 Economic theory 2. TheoryPart 2 Insurance 3. The mirage of private unemployment insurance4. Problems with medical insurance5. Twenty-first century insurance issuesPart 3 Pensions 6. The economics of pensions7. Misleading guides to pension design8. Pension design: the options9. Twenty-first century pensions issuesPart 4 Education 10. Core issues in the economics of education11. Information problems12. Designing student loans13. Financing higher education: the options14. Twenty-first century education issuesPart 5 The welfare state in a changing world 15. The welfare state in post-communist countries16. The welfare state in a changing
world

The Welfare State As Piggy Bank

Information, Risk, Uncertainty, and the Role of the State

Nicholas Barr

Author Information

Nicholas Barr has a BSc and MSc from the London School of Economics and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a Fulbright Scholar. He is Reader in Economics at the LSE, the author of numerous books and articles on the economics of the welfare state and the finance of higher education including "The Economics of the Welfare State" (OUP, 3rd edn, 1998) and "Labor Markets and Social Policy in Central and Eastern Europe" (OUP, 1994), and a member of the editorial board of the "International Social Security Review".